MOTUnation.com

builder wrote:External Hardrives.....

try and go buy a FW drive easily now... the store here only carries USB2.0 now. FW has been relegated to terrabyte raid arrays most places i see carrying them.

seems like FW is on its way out.

Dropping Firewire? I can't see Apple dropping it completely - at least not on the PowerMacs....or MacPro or whatever they end up calling the new MacIntel tower - there are so many firewire interfaces out there that a lot of people would be screwed if they dropped it....

....on the other hand, it really wouldn't surprise me too terribly much - I bet back in September no one would have thought that the new PowerMac would no longer support PCI cards either, so there ya go.....and the fact that MOTU is now making an 828 that is USB2.0 in addition to FW certainly means they are not putting all their interface eggs in one basket.

We may see it phased out everywhere except on the Mac Towers. When you think about it, what's the big deal about Firewire 400 anymore (except that I have Firewire only interface). FW 400 is slower than USB2 (400Mbps compared to 480Mbps), and USB is more prevelant, so other than not having a USB2 option - like my interface - why would you opt for FW, unless of course you go with FW 800.

Timeline wrote:I'm actually quite happy I got a 15" 1.67 laptop a few days ago. What good is a FW 400 with two RME Fireface IO's. I can at least track with this machine happily.

I won't even think about a MacBook until the bugs are completely cleared out. Obviously MOTU got a heads up as they announced the first USB IO a month ago.

This will be VERY interesting to watch.

Can't see how buying a slow overpriced machine would make anyone happy, but each to his own I guess!

Since the brand new MacBook Pro has a firewire port, and since the new Intel iMac maintained its two firewire ports, I don't see any reason to believe that Apple is on the verge of phasing it out. 2 years down the road....maybe who knows, but I doubt you'll see it happen in 2006.

DonaldDriver wrote: Can't see how buying a slow overpriced machine would make anyone happy, but each to his own I guess!

Well I use a dual 2.5 for my main system and will use the LT for tracking with a couple of Firefaces, no biggie.

It wasn't that expensive anyway and all the software works F___ing great NOW. I even bought apple care for it.

You guys should wait a few versions for these things to get out into the field before you go crazy.

Gear fever for sure!

builder wrote:It won't happen. If anything they might drop FW400 and just opt for FW800.

If anything, my guess is they'll drop FW800 because the PC world hasn't caught on. The MacBook is a harbinger.

Weekendshooter wrote:But getting an optical i/o is intriguing!

Many of us have the option of going with optical or FireWire at this point as the G5 has an optical in/out and many FireWire devices also have optical. I sort of went thru this when they dropped SCSI (OMG!) and again when my AMIII card was unsupported. Support for the AMIII returned, but in the mean time I got a FW410 and would NEVER go back to the AMIII. Besides, there is always the PCI Express:

http://www.apple.com/powermac/pciexpress.html

and the new Intel iMac has 2x Firewire 400 ports.

Firewire ain;t going nowhere anytime soon. When it does, we'll be ready for the next, faster, more efficient protocol.

cleantone wrote:Anyone know anything about this? I read a post about the new iPods not supporting FW. An explaination is that they are focusng on USB2 and dropping FW in future designs. Anyone?

Well USB 2.0 is actually faster so....
But in another way I think Apple should really start developing more FW 800 peripherals and get a little deeper into that technology. FW IEEE 1394 spec A was great but USB 2.0 got it's # and so that's where the problem starts for Apple. BANDWIDTH! That's the new buzz word he-he!
I don't know... I really don't need a faster computer than I have now just a little more intuitiveness from DP would be great!

Don‘t forget the new card slot on the Mac Book Pro! It seems to be PCI Express and there is already a FW card from LaCie.
I love FireWire

newrigel wrote:

cleantone wrote:Anyone know anything about this? I read a post about the new iPods not supporting FW. An explaination is that they are focusng on USB2 and dropping FW in future designs. Anyone?

Well USB 2.0 is actually faster so....
But in another way I think Apple should really start developing more FW 800 peripherals and get a little deeper into that technology. FW IEEE 1394 spec A was great but USB 2.0 got it's # and so that's where the problem starts for Apple. BANDWIDTH! That's the new buzz word he-he!
I don't know... I really don't need a faster computer than I have now just a little more intuitiveness from DP would be great!

The new iPods do not support FW. However, I don't see this as saying anything about whether future Macs will or will not support FW. Apple is trying to make the iPods as small as possible, while also decreasing their cost for making them, so it makes sense to get rid of FW on the iPods for those reasons - USB2 is faster than FW400 and more universally available, and getting rid of the FW hardware in the iPod allows them to make it smaller.

There are plenty of other reasons besides iPod that Apple would continue supplying FW on Macs - audio interfaces and hard drives being just one.

newrigel wrote:Well USB 2.0 is actually faster

USB 2.0 is faster in theory but in a few real world tests I have read(uhh, cannot post the link, bad memory) FW400 has beaten the USB 2. FW400 usually operates near theoretical maximum, USB2 not.
FW800 is faster then FW400 only if one is using HD Array (FW RAID). The sustained transfer rate of a single 7200rpm disk does not exceed 40 MB/s.

ExpressCard slot of MacBook Pro will take also SATA card. This one already exists. With external SATA drive you get more speed than with FW800, hook up a 10000rpm Raptor for example. And I beleive that some SATA express cards will also support RAID.

The downside is that there is one card slot and most probably there will portable recording systems based on that card.

Well lets see after 6 months what has happened...

I think Apple made a big mistake when they created a different plug for FW 800. Had they made FW 800 with the same plug as 400 with back compatability, these issues would be moot. more wires and such,

All FW devices in a daisy-chained setup operate at the same speed, while multiple USB devices experience bottlenecks.

The pro and prosumer video devices, decks, etc. that have data ports have FW ports, not USB.

papageno wrote:

newrigel wrote:Well USB 2.0 is actually faster

USB 2.0 is faster in theory but in a few real world tests I have read(uhh, cannot post the link, bad memory) FW400 has beaten the USB 2. FW400 usually operates near theoretical maximum, USB2 not.

I think this is because USB 2.0 doesn't run off its own dedicated card, so it's prone to interrruptions. This is of little to no consequence to most computers users since they use USB 2.0 for basic data transfer. But, for audio production, which requires a lot of uninterrrupted data i/o, it can be a problem.

Anyway, I don't think firewire's going away quite yet. When it does, there'll be another technology to take its place.

Too scary for you? Don't use computers. It's the nature of the beat, you know?